How lucky can a gal get?
On day five back in Oaxaca, a last-minute invitation found me venturing behind an unassuming red iron door at Libertad 24, San Antonino Castillo Velasco and being greeted by welcoming figures of all shapes and sizes gathered throughout a large earthen courtyard.
This is the home and workshop of Grand Maestro, José García Antonio, also known as the blind potter.
Losing his sight to cataracts, he continues to sculpt sensual and evocative figures from the local barro (clay).
He was married to his beloved wife, Santa Teresita Mendoza Reyna Sanchez, in 1987.
Her face and body are etched in his memory and continue to provide a model for many of his female figures.
The twinkle in those all-seeing sightless eyes and the artistry in those gifted hands give form and life to his creations in clay.
“It would seem that the hearts of the potters of Oaxaca are made of clay. Their emotions, intuitions, joys, fears and fantasies flow through their bloodstream until arriving at the hands which knead the clay and, as if by magic, transform it into exquisite ceramic sculptures.” (quoted from “The Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art.”)
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